Monday, November 28, 2011

With Nokia's latest Symbian smartphones selling like hot cakes I thought it was high time we reviewed the hottest selling smartphone of the year - the Nokia 700 and tips for it's associated OS, the Symbian Belle.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Microsoft is leaving no stone unturned for Xbox 360 as it is on the brink of phasing out with Xbox 720 anticipated to launch next year. They have announced a dashboard update for the Xbox 360 and as the tradition goes for these updates to bring along a new set of features, the update is set to be launched on December 6,2011. Read more about xbox 360 cloud.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

It's somewhat ironic that, having had hierarchical folder for so many years and with iOS and Android just starting to copy the concept, Symbian has now abandoned folders. Well, not quite. The idea of a flat list was to help new users find apps they are looking for. And, to be honest, even as experienced Symbian die-hards, I bet we've all scratched our heads once in a while looking for 'Recorder' or 'Connection manager'.

The first thing to note is how easy it is to toggle between 'Arrange - A to Z' and 'Arrange - as it was'. Tap the 'More' icon (three stacked lines) and you'll see it on the menu. This alone makes it easy to find an application.

Homescreens

This is going to sound radical, but the very first thing you should do is remove almost all the widgets and shortcuts put on the homescreens by default. In fact, delete most of the homescreens provided. Far better to build up homescreens with bits that you find you need rather than fill the homescreens just 'because you can'. You'll see slightly faster device operation, slightly less data use and slightly better battery life if you keep homescreens and widgets down, especially if they're connected widgets that go online.

Multitasking

Not to be overlooked is the built-in Symbian multitasking - present since the beginnings of the OS, of course, but very visual since Symbian^3, with live 'previews' of what each running application is up to. When you need another app and you know it's running, it's often faster to press and hold the main 'home'/Menu key and simply pick from the carousel of running applications.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Scientists at the NorthWestern University in the USA have finally built and tested a prototype battery that has 10x greater battery life and charge 10x faster. If this battery passes FCC and hits the market, it could be an evolutionary change in battery technology.

How the scientists managed to do this is an interesting read as they did a "simple" thing of poking holes in the battery to improve it's life and performance. When they say holes, however, they mean that they drilled 20 nanometer holes in the Lithium-ion batteries. They also removed the sheets of material and insted changed it into clusters so that they can achieve greater lithium ion density.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

In a very brief statement by one of Nokia's executives in France, Nokia has confirmed it'll be shipping a Windows 8 tablet next year. The statement from Paul Amsellem was very specific and to the point, if a bit devoid of detail:

In June 2012, we will have a tablet that runs on Windows 8.

With the proliferation of quad-core tablets, we can probably assume that a system-on-chip solution like the Tegra 3 will be used, offering impressive multitasking prowess, good 3D performance and also potentially excellent battery life.

Both Lenovo and HTC have recently revealed they'll be producing tablets based on the Tegra 3 chipset, in addition to Asus who were the first to announce they would be using Tegra 3 in their heavily anticipated Transformer Prime.

Windows 8 is expected to launch in the middle of 2012, so June seems a fitting time as any. Nokia will likely have received quite early access to Windows 8 thanks to their new relationship with Microsoft, although now the Windows 8 Developer Preview build is out so their competors will also be able to do so.

If you'd like to give Windows 8 a try before it's released next year, you don't need to be a developer to do so. Just download it from the official Microsoft page, choosing an appropriate version for your PC, either 32 bit (x86) or 74 bit (x64). If you're not sure, just choose 32 bit to be safe.

You can install Windows on your computer using the Windows 7 USB install tool to install the file onto a USB drive. Once the tool is ready, just restart your PC and choose to boot from USB (an option typically available in the BIOS, search 'changing boot order' and the name of your PC if you're unsure.

Of course, you'll need a fresh hard drive to do this; don't overwrite your existing Windows install unless you know what you're doing! There are a lot of hurdles available beyond the scope of this blog post, so search for a Windows 8 USB install guide for more details.

Pakuma
Their logo is derived from the shamen symbol for man. Pakuma bags have quite a story behind them, you can read them here. This Pakuma Akara K1 bag was sent in for review by mobilefun.co.uk, you can find similar cool accessories at their macbook accesories page. Though you can get the Akara K1 in various colour combinations, our sample arrived sporting brown panels and green piping.

Unloaded the bag weighs 1.3kg, and it has an internal volume capacity of 23 litres, measures 34 x 16.5 x 51cm, and can hold most 15 to 17-inch laptops (the compartment's exact dimensions are 30 x 5.1 x 39cm). According to the Pakuma website it will take "all PC and Apple notebooks from 15.4" to 17", but we can't see it fitting a gaming monster along the lines of the Alienware M17xR3. At the bag's front you'll find a further two zippered compartments, marked out in brown to show their size and shape. The top one features an internal pocket to hold your MP3 player. It has some padding at the front but none at the back, so again you have to be careful what you put in the Akara K1's main compartment.

I've been window-shopping the past few days for some smokin' accessories for my mac. After a pretty extensive search I've come up with the following list. Hope this helps you if you've been searching for Macbook Pro accessories as well. I've provided links so that you can get all these products from the same e-shop which would make shipping easier and cheaper if you get more than one.

Note: For Indian readers, I highly recommend gearzap.com. Their shipping to India is extremely fast and I was able to get my products in just over a week.

Cases/Skins

1. ProtectiveHousing

The Macally MBP sleeve is wonderfully built with Faux Leather. It's sufficiently padded and there is further protection inside the case.The inner lining of the case is made from microsuede. Microsuede provides a slight cushioning effect as well as preventing any scratches from appearing on your MBP. I've noticed the microsuede infact gives you a cleansing action, the MBP felt way smooother when I took it out of the case.

2. Stylish Sleeves

A whole lot of Macbook sleeves can be had from here - choose your pick. Obviously my selection might not click for you.

3. Padded Backpack/Rucksack

Even though I think that there's too much marketing talk at the Pakuma site, this bag does show some good value for money. If you've got a 100$ budget then this backpack might do the trick. Read the whole review here.

4. Henge Docking Station

No longer deal with cables and clutter. With the Henge Dock, simply connect the relevant cables to your dock and then connect to your Unibody MacBook Pro. The Henge dock allows you to use your MacBook on a larger screen with a standard keyboard and mouse meaning it in essence becomes a traditional desktop computer set up. You are also able to use the Hench dock so the MacBook effectively becomes a home cinema system.

5. Swift Point Mouse

If you ever get frustrated by the accuracy and responsiveness of your laptop or MacBook's touchpad, and don't want the bulk of big mouse then get this mouse. Fortunately SwiftPoint have created an award winning mouse which gives you back full control, in an amazing lightweight and compact design.

6. Elecom Node Mouse

If you, like me, hate the puny mouse shown earlier then this is the mouse for you. It did the trick for me =)

The cool looks are cutting edge. It also works with the same pen like principle that the Swift mouse works.

7. Mac Cables

Stevie had put in a mini-display port on the mca so in order to use it you need these cables. You could get them from the Apple Store but it's way more expensive there.

8. Macbook Stands

Again there's a whole lot of them so you just go ahead and browse them to find the one that suits your situation and lifestyle.

9. Wrist Pad

You need this to prevent the sharp edges of the MacBook Pro from cutting your wrists. If you've got soft or sensitive skin, or work for long hours on the MBP then I really do recommend getting one of these.

10. ...

Well, I haven't found out a 10th accessory that i really like yet;-D Will let you know if I do !

All the products shown above can be bought from the laptop accessories page - it'll help you save on shipping if you're buying in bulk =)

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The new model is said to be an ultra-thin version similar to the MacBook Air, but with a 15" screen. It still remains to be seen whether this would be branded as a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro. Read more about this awesome 15" ultra thin macbook pro.

Monday, November 14, 2011

A lot of mobile phone speaker manufacturers seems to have dumped sophisticating devices and instead have started putting out more minimalistic styled simple devices.

The Altec Lansing M102 Octiv Mini is one such button-less device that is operated by an app-enhanced iPhone 4 or iPod Touch. Take away the iPhone app and the Octiv Mini is a basic iPod speaker. It's not a complete plug-and-play device though, for you have to manually launch the app to make use of some features. But playing music is a straight forward affair.

The volume range is good, and it has a fairly good sound for such a small speaker. Be aware that you have to change the volume on your iPod/mp3 player itself, as the speaker has no controls on it.

The product also ships with a kind of multi-plug - a single adaptor with an interchangeable pin that allows you to use any of the standard pins available without adding any bulk. Perfect for frequent travelers.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Nokia seems to be mighty confused on what OS it really needs to use. So instead of concentrating on one it's spreading it's legs into 2 boats: Symbian and Windows. Not to mention the occasional case of MeeGo or Maemo. Despite the obvious move toward the Windows Phone 7 OS for all their new devices, the successor Nokia’s flagship model, the N8, will still use the Symbian OS.

It is still unclear which version of Symbian will be used as the latest iteration doesn’t have support for the resolution the new device is rumored to sport. Other features of this new phone are as follows:

bigger camera sensor (not sure about resolution),

optical zoom!

3.5” WVGA Clear Black display with Gorilla Glass,

1GHz CPU,

512MB of RAM

This has got to be one gadget of a phone, the Optical zoom reminds me of the days of the Nokia N93. The N8 successor is scheduled for Q2 2012 release, and may be launched at Mobile World Congress in February.

Gaming laptops are all the rage these days as they have looks to kill. Compared to the boring designs of other companies like Dell, these have been mostly desktop replacements as they weighed an average of 10 pounds and no less than 2 inches thick. Then again the existence of laptops which are ultra thin and ultra portable cannot be ignored but when it comes to gaming performance these machines misses the mark by a mile. Razer has fabricated a laptop called Blade which they claim to be the World’s first true gaming laptop. Read more about this cool gaming laptop.

Friday, November 4, 2011

The Samsung Galaxy Note is one almighty handset, with it's 5.3" Super AMOLED screen, 8MP camera and 1.4GHz dual core processor. Surprisingly it's really slim and lightweight too, only weighing 178g and has a handy built-in stylus to help you navigate the handset quicker. The Note's been claimed to fill the gap between smartphones and tablets, because of it's size, style and speed. The great news is the Galaxy Note is in stock now costing £589.95.

The second handset which is exciting us is the HTC Sensation XL. This is one of the new HTC handsets complete with Beats by Dre Audio software and headphones, but it's not just all about the music. The Sensation XL has a massive 1.5GHz processor and 4.7" screen to keep it running super fast and show all images and visuals in bright, vivid colours. The handset also has an 8MP camera with instant capture, so you never have an excuse to miss a moment. Again we've got this handset in stock now and it costs £499.95.

Next up we've received stock of HMDI out cradles for the Samsung Galaxy S2, HTC EVO 3D and HTC Sensation. These docks allow you to sync and charge your handset, but also have the ability to stream your images and videos straight to your TV! This means you can show off your photography skills on the big screen all in the knowledge that you're not using up any of your battery, as your phone's charging at the same time. The docks are al in stock now and cost £24.95 - a bargain for such a multi-functional accessory.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

First of all you have 5 free Symbian apps waiting for you by The Pundit. These have been selected from around the web and tested to make sure they work. Of course we can't guarantee anything but I hope you get your app without further ado.

Monday, October 31, 2011

The Nokia Lumia 800 runs Windows 7.5 Mango OS. And this OS in turn has the HTML5 browser. It's a pretty slick browser and it even features graphics acceleration. It integrates Bing search, can find text from images and translate it to any language you want. The UI also seems to be pretty fast and smooth. Check out the video to see for yourself. Read more about the Nokia Lumia 800 here.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Our friends at Noreve have undergone a facelift and are now back with whole new designs and features. These a include a cool new package in black and red as well as introduction of the new VIC card. Get your smartphone cases and tablet covers today. If you're in the market for an iPad case or an iPhone case do give them a visit.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Nokia have just announced their two latest top-end smartphones: The Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. The phones come with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, courtesy Nokia's recent alliance with Microsoft, and are reportedly going to be launched with three times the marketing budget of any previous Nokia phone.

Let's have a look at both of the two phones, firstly the Nokia 800. This is essentially the Windows Phone version of the incredibly well-received N9, which unfortunately launched with the MeeGo operating system that Nokia announced that they were abandoning. The phone's hardware was top notch though, and it's great to see that it's been made available once again, this time with a properly supported mobile operating system.

The Lumia 800 comes with a 3.7" display, an 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and a capacious battery good for 9.5 hours of 3G talk time. The phone also has a dedicated audio co-processor, allowing up to 55 hours of music playback time. The phone is externally the same as the N9, which a shapely curved figure that is 12.1 mm thick and weighs 142 g.

Internally, you'll find average specifications, including 16 GB of internal memory (with no microSD slot), 512 MB of RAM. The processor is expected to be a single core 1.4 GHz affair.

The phone comes in black, blue and pink, and is expected to launch by early November at €420.

The Nokia 710 shares many of these specifications, but has a slightly less unique design. This handset packs a 3.7" ClearBlack display and slightly less internal memory, at 8 GB. The camera is also slightly worse, at 5 megapixels and the battery is less capacious, with just 7 hours 40 minutes of 3G talk time. Elsewhere, both phones pack the same 1.4 GHz processor and graphics chipset.

The Lumia 710 is likewise going to be launched in early November, but will cost significantly less at €270. As the two phones share very similar specifications, it'll be interesting to see if the 800's superior design merits its higher price point.

The announcements were made earlier this morning at Nokia World, Nokia's yearly expo for their latest handsets and software. Nokia also announced two other product lines; the Asha series of low-cost phones for developing markets and the Nokia Purity headset line co-developed with Monster.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

We had today's MacBook Pro refresh, and now Apple has also updated its iPad 2 Smart Cover offerings.

New dark gray Smart Cover

Changes include:

- Interior color now matches exterior color. The interior side of the Smart Cover facing the iPad screen had previously been a uniform gray color on all models with the exception of the (PRODUCT) RED version. All Smart Covers are now a consistent color inside and out.

With the way things are moving, soo you might be able to print yourself your own personally customised phone. And they're organic too, so you don't have to worry about destroying the environment either. I wonder when they are going to bring out some Nokia flavored paper - I'd like to print out some superthin symbian gadgets.

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Monday, October 24, 2011

What big, wireless brother wants, big, wireless brother gets. With its pay-as-you-go subsidiary already packing this particular piece of mobile kit, it was only a matter of time before Sprint got its hands on theTransform Ultra.

Officially announced for the third place carrier today, Sammy's Droid Charge with a QWERTY twist packs the usual array of mid-range specs. The 3.5-incher runs Android 2.3 atop a single-core 1GHz processor, with a VGA front facing / 3 megapixel rear camera, 512MB RAM, 2GB of storage and 1500mAh battery in tow. It's not 4G but sometimes you need a workhorse. Pricing and availability have yet to be released, although we're sure that bit of crucial info's right around the corner. Official presser awaits you after the break.

Friday, October 21, 2011

SymTorrent is the first and currently only BitTorrent client for Symbian OS.

It supports downloading multiple torrents at the same time, is capable of both downloading and uploading and can save the status of your unfinished torrents, so you can resume the downloads after restarting the application. You can also check the status of each file inside a torrent along with several other statistics and properties during download. Torrents can be started from the browser, and selecting the files that are downloaded from multi file torrents is also supported.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Th Motorola Droid RAZR is the latest ultimate smartphone that is to come out of Motorolas lair. The Droid RAZR combines two winning arguments of Motorola - the superb OS which is the Android and the excellent design by way of RAZR. Keeping with RAZR the signature, this device is also hyped to be the slimmest smartphone available in the market right now.

IntoMobile got their hands on the upcoming Modern Combat 3. MC3 is a cool shoot-em-up from Gameloft that will be released for iOS. This new version will bring a bigger multiplayer up to 12 players, 6 maps, more weapons, enhanced graphics and it will be out on the October 27th. Check the gameplay video on iPhone and iPad.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Nokia has just announced their latest smartphone, the Nokia 603. The handset, which runs on the new Android look-alike Symbian Belle operating system, sports a 3.5" IPS display and a 1GHz single core CPU. The handset is expected to cost €200, and comes in twelve colour combinations (two front options, and six back cover options).

Internally, you'll find all of the standard wireless and wired connectivity options, including GPS (no word if this is assisted GPS or not), Wi-Fi N, USB and Near Field Communication (NFC). The smartphone can also have its internal storage expanded by MicroSD, from 2 GB to 34 GB. On the camera front, there's a five megapixel rear snapper but no front facer, meaning no video calls. The video camera's capable of 720p video, but this doesn't make up for the lack of flash.

In terms of apps, the Nokia 603 includes a few interesting ones preinstalled: Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, YouTube and Shazam. The excellent Nokia Maps app is also installed, as you'd expect.

This is a fairly attractive phone, with some nice colour options and decent specifications, but the real question is whether Symbian Belle will prove to be a success; even with a few excellent Belle handsets it's hard to believe that they wouldn't do better with Android installed instead. Another issue is the fairly low resolution screen - 360 x 640 pixels isn't competitive anymore, particularly with flagship Android phones soon to come with a resolution of 1280 x 720.

The affordable if not incredible Nokia 603 is expected to be released sometime later this year, at approximately £175 in the UK.

SurfCube Browser is an yet another browser for WP7 phones and news is that it's ready for the Mango version of Windows Phone 7. Check out the video to determine if this one's for you.

For now, you can download the current versions of SurfCube in the Marketplace for FREE or for $1.99. The Mango version should be released by the end of next week as long as everything goes well. Thanks to Kinabalu Innovation Limited for publishing this great app and sending us the beta version!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Sony Ericsson has always been one of the underdogs in the battle for portable gadget supremacy. It's been going on for so long that Sony has got fed up with the struggle and has finally decided to buy out the Ericsson half and thus end the joint venture.

In what seems like a common occurrence these days, Lenovo has just dropped the price on their Android-powered IdeaPad A1 tablet down to $200 via their website. The tablet was originally introduced at $350 back when manufacturers were a bit more optimistic on Android tablet adoption. This new price point seems to fall more in line with what is being actually being offered.

We got Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 single-core processor, 512MB of RAM all on a 7-inch 1024×600 resolution display. Unlike the similarly priced Kindle Fire, the IdeaPad A1 does come with a pair of 3MP rear/.3MP front facing cameras for quick snap shots or chatting. The IdeaPad A1 also comes in your choice of black, white, pink or blue flavors. For $200, sounds like a pretty good deal to me. What do you guys think?

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Nokia's biggest event of the year, Nokia World conference, is coming up fast. The event, which will be held in London on the 26th and 27th of October, typically offers Nokia a chance to show off its latest handsets and other technologies. This year, a number of Microsoft executives will be making an appearance at the event, suggesting that a number of Nokia-made Windows phones will be in evidence.

One of these will be the Nokia Sun, also known as the Nokia Sea Ray. The Nokia Sun runs Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango), and has a fairly impressive laundry list of reported specifications:

1.4GHz processor

16 GB onboard storage

8 megapixel camera

3.7" AMOLED screen

Unibody shell made of polycarbonate

MicroSIM card

The phone is due to hit stores between the 7th and the 13th of November, so an announcement at Nokia World would be well timed. Be sure to tune into the opening keynote of Nokia World at 9AM on the 26th to see if Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will unveil the device.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Shaasthra has posted an article about the new features, launch date and pricing of the upcoming Apple iPhone 4S. They talk about Siri, A5 and the works. Pay them a visit to know better. The new Apple iPhone 4S also features tweaks to it's antennas by way of a new evolutionary design that takes care of antennagate that plagued the previous apple iPhone 4.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Samsung has officially launched an upgrade (mod?) for the Samsung Galaxy S2 - an extended battery kit that holds a whopping 2000mAh of charge. The kit comes with the heavy duty battery and a modified back cover. The selling point is that this cover does not have the same ugliness that usually comes along with battery upgrades. In fact it only slightly increases the thickness of the phone. As you can see in the image, now the camera lies flush with the back cover instead of projecting outside. The new cover also provides increased protection to the handset from nicks and scratches.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Nokia has been building up the hype on it's array of Windows 7 Phones for quite some time now. And now the the pieces are falling together. Microsoft Canada has gone ahead and leaked (and thereby confirmed) the presence of 2 Nokia handsets that will run on the windows platform Windows Phone 7.5. These two handsets have been named as Nokia Sabre and Nokia Seeray.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

After weeks of rumors, the Nokia N9 has finally begun shipping in the UK. Today, the Finnish manufacturer announced that its Meego handsets are now available for purchase, in both 16GB and 64GB variants. Everyone else can grab a 16GB model for the not-so-small price of €480 (about $650), or the 64GB version for the similarly steep price of €560 (roughly $757). Pricing and availability, of course, will vary by region, but you can find more details about the Nokia N9 here.

The Boeing 787 a.k.a Dreamliner is built with the perspective of what future air travel should truly have. Having seating capacities of 250-290 people and having upto 3 classes this aircraft is built with passenger comfort getting top priority. It comes with a beautifully designed spacious interior with spanning ceilings and arches. The seats in the business classes are top notch and looked deliciously comfy. The windows have lost the conventional shutter and now work on a electrochromatic technology that is really cool. These planes are powered by a choice of either Rolls-Royce GM nextGen engines that have 20% lower sound with increased fuel efficiency.

The first customer who has taken delivery is All Nippon Airways. It's available in 3 configurations starting from $150 million to $200 million and is has 7-% of it's components sourced from outside America.